


10 Things I Hate About You

by LuthienLuinwe



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Angry Dick Grayson, But He Gets Better, Dick is kind of a dick at first, Enemies to Friends, Gen, Hurt feelings, Jason just wants someone to love him, Jealousy, Light Angst, Misplaced Anger, Teamwork
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-28
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:53:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26051467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LuthienLuinwe/pseuds/LuthienLuinwe
Summary: When Bruce brings Jason Todd home, it's hate at first sight for Dick Grayson. Between the sting of losing the Robin mantle to adjusting to a new person under the Wayne Manor roof, Dick is having a rough time. But maybe, just maybe, the kid is starting to grow on him.
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Jason Todd
Comments: 10
Kudos: 151
Collections: JayDick Summer Exchange 2020





	10 Things I Hate About You

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt: Young Justice universe. I'd love to know more about this version of Jason and relationship between him and Dick in cartoon's universe
> 
> Bolded words are from the 10 Things I Hate About You poem.

**I hate the way you talk to me, and the way you cut your hair.**

There were no two ways about it. High school sucked. It was senior year, and Dick was up to his neck in college applications and friends and sports and… Well. Not Robin. Bruce had taken Robin away months ago. The wound was still raw, and it was easier not to think about it. Besides, he’d gotten a running list started of possible names (Bluebird? Lame. Batboy? Gag). Nothing like a good push out of the nest to get him flying on his own, he guessed.

Besides. He was sick and tired of running around in tights anyway. Or at least that was the lie he kept telling himself.

He walked into the manor, backpack slung across his shoulder. His teachers apparently didn’t care that they were all worrying themselves sick over what would happen once the year ended and seemed content enough to bury them in homework that didn’t even have a point to it.

He frowned when he saw the living room light on down the hall. Alfred would already be in the kitchen by now, and Bruce never came home before six on a good night. Normally he would have headed straight up to his room to pretend to work on whatever, but curiosity go the better of him, and he was in the living room before his brain realized where his feet were taking him.

Bruce sat on the couch, some scrawny kid in clothes that had for sure seen better days plopped down beside him. “Dick,” the man greeted, rising to his feet, smile on his face. As if it were totally normal for some stranger kid that looked like he was pulled straight out of the sewer to be sitting in their house.

“You’re home early,” Dick commented, tone edged with suspicion. “Did someone die?” Oh God. Had Alfred died? He felt his heart sink into his stomach at the thought.

Bruce frowned and shook his head. “No,” he assured. “No, everything’s fine.” Dick nodded, a wave of relief rushing over him. He glanced between Bruce and the younger boy, still trying to figure out exactly what was going on. Bruce always had told him he needed to work on honing his detective skills. “I wanted you to…” Bruce started, trailing off before starting again. “This is Jason.”

The kid gave a half-hearted wave, and Dick’s frown deepened, the name not really helping his confusion any. “Okay?”

“He’ll be staying with us from now on.”

Dick blinked hard and stared at Bruce, certain he’d misheard. Because Bruce would have run something like this by him first… right? Surely to  _ God  _ he wouldn’t spring this on Dick like it was no big deal.

“I told you this was a bad idea,” the kid… Jason… rolled his eyes and moved to stare up at the ceiling. Had Dick been that big of an ass when he’d been… what… eleven? Thirteen?

“Where did you even find him?” Dick questioned, as if Jason were nothing more than some stray puppy Bruce had picked up off the side of the road.

A smirk crossed the brat’s face. “Got caught jacking the tires off the Batmobile.”

Dick’s eyes flashed and he fought the urge to go and grab the boy by his collar. “Are you kidding me?” he snapped, turning back to Bruce. “You find some… some  _ criminal  _ who was stupid enough to steal Batman’s tires? And you  _ bring him home?!” _

“Like I said,” Jason mumbled, rolling his eyes again. “Bad idea.”

“Dick,” Bruce sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Just…”

Dick shook his head, cutting him off. “I’m going up to my room,” he said. “It is still my room right?” he added, knowing it was cruel and the kid didn’t deserve it. “Let me know when you’ve got some sense back.”

**I hate the way you drive my car. I hate it when you stare.**

_ ‘Hey dude u busy rn?’  _ Dick texted, falling backwards onto his bed, a death grip on his phone. A small part of him said this was probably more of a ‘phone call’ issue and less of a ‘text’ problem, but he didn’t want to bother Wally if he was in the middle of something, and he knew it wasn’t something Babs would take his side on.

Three dots appeared on his screen, disappearing before popping up again.

_ ‘Rob! Where you been bro?’ _

His stomach twisted at the nickname he didn’t want, couldn’t have anymore. He couldn’t be Robin to his friends anymore. Not when Bruce had up and taken it all away. 

_ ‘Busy w/ b stuff.’ _

_ ‘Right right. Kicking ass and taking names. U off the bench now? What’s up?’ _

Dick shut his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm down enough to figure out what he wanted to say. To try and figure out why he’d even bothered starting this conversation in the first place.

_ ‘B’ _

_ ‘Oh boy. Wut now?’ _

Dick shook his head and locked his phone, tossing it aside. Wally would worry and try to call him, and maybe Dick would answer, or maybe he wouldn’t, but it had been stupid to text him about this in the first place when he hadn't even processed it quite yet.

Part of him wanted to believe the Jason situation was temporary, but a stronger part of him knew this was for sure permanent whether he liked it or not. And he definitely  _ didn’t  _ like it.

_ Temporary,  _ the voice in the back of his head told him. Besides, this time next year he’d be off at college doing his own thing. He could deal for a few months.  _ Temporary. Temporary. Temporary. _

**I hate your big, dumb combat boots and the way you read my mind.**

Adjusting to life with a new body in the manor was so, so much harder than Dick had thought it would be. Jason was testing Bruce and Alfred and pushing every boundary he could and it was taking every ounce of self control Dick had in him not to reach over and shake some sense into him.

And all Bruce had to say on the matter?

That Dick needed to try and make an effort and spend more time with him. Yeah right. He’d rather die.

But Bruce’s word was law, and if Dick was going to approach him about the Nightwing thing later, he knew he needed to play nice.

He pulled into the carline at Jason’s school (it had been an act of Congress to get Bruce to agree to send the kid anywhere  _ but  _ Gotham Academy), looking for Jason’s face in a crowd of seventh graders. He waved slightly when Jason approached him, throwing his bag in the trunk before climbing into the passenger seat. 

“Hey,” Dick greeted, sighing hard when Jason didn’t so much as acknowledge he existed. “Earth to Jason? Hello?”

“I thought Alfred was picking me up.”

“Yeah, well Alfred’s busy so you’re stuck with me,” Dick responded, clenching the wheel so tight his knuckles turned white.

“Great,” Jason shook his head and shifted to stare out the passenger window.

_ Fine,  _ Dick thought and turned the radio up high.  _ Be like that.  _

**I hate you so much that it makes me sick. It even makes me rhyme.**

_ ‘New rob sux’ _

Dick fought back a laugh when he saw Wally’s text pop up on his lock screen. He’d been nothing short of livid when he’d seen Jason in  _ his  _ uniform and going by  _ his  _ name. But knowing he was apparently awful at the gig? That made him feel at least a little bit better. Was it healthy? Probably not. Did he care? No. Not really.

Maybe a little.

Dick had yet to see Jason in action, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to. Bruce, to his credit, didn’t complain, but he’d gotten enough messages from Wally to get the idea of what he was missing. Even if Wally was biased in this.

_ ‘So what do I call u now?’  _ Wally sent, and Dick sighed. He was so used to being Robin that it felt like his identity had been completely stripped away from him. After all, what was Dick Grayson  _ without  _ Robin?

Bruce had been hesitant to hear the Nightwing pitch, but Dick had worn him down enough to get him to agree to a test run. Not that Bruce could really do too much about it. Dick would turn 18 in March, and then he could stop giving a damn about anything Bruce said or wanted. Even though he doubted it would be that easy.

_ ‘Nightwing,’  _ he sent back, barely looking at his phone.

_ ‘Cool, cool. G2G Flash calling.’ _

_ ‘C u.’ _

**I hate the way you’re always right. I hate it when you lie.**

Dick hated to admit it. He really, really hated to admit it. But Jason… Jason was growing on him. A little bit. Maybe more than a little bit, but he wasn’t ready to admit that quite yet. Bruce was away on a business trip, and Dick had been left in charge of Gotham, and he wasn’t about to screw that chance up. Not when he was recently of Bat Probation and Nightwing was still so new to the scene. Not when Jason was an absolute holy terror without the Robin outlet.

And Jason? Dick was pretty sure Jason was warming up to him too. It had been three months since Bruce had dropped the Jason bombshell on him, and a mixture of close proximity and forced bonding had done  _ something  _ though Dick wasn’t entirely sure what.

Heck.

Maybe they’d both just decided hating each other was too much effort. 

And if Dick were being honest?

Nightwing and the new Robin fought well together.

Jason was rough around the edges, for sure, and hit a heck of a lot harder than Dick ever had at his age. But Bruce had mentioned the kid had come from a bad home situation and had spent a year or two on the streets. So if Robin punched a guy into next week? Nightwing might have gone temporarily blind.

Dick finished flex cuffing some drug dealer behind the back, smiling slightly when he saw Jason finishing up as well. 

“What?” Jason asked, crossing his arms in front of him, a defensive stance he always seemed to take on whenever he was around Dick. As if at any minute Dick was going to  _ actually  _ hit him and not just daydream about it.

“Nothing,” Dick responded, holding his hands out in front of him.

“Whatever,” Jason huffed and started to walk away.

Dick moved quickly and fell into step beside him, not sure why he was even bothering. It wasn’t like Jason had put any real effort into this either.

But…

Someone had to be the adult here, and Dick figured he was the closest to eighteen anway. 

“Just… Good job out there today,” he said, a smile that was only partially forced on his face.

Jason lit up at that, his entire demeanor changing with that one sentence. “Yeah, it was good, huh?” he asked, voice full of more excitement than Dick had ever thought the kid capable of producing. “I mean, like, he was all like WHAM and I was all like BAM and they were all like WHOA and…”

Dick’s smile broadened and he fought down a laugh.

Maybe the kid wasn’t so bad after all.

**I hate it when you make me laugh, even worse when you make me cry.**

It was the end of the world. That was the only possible explanation. Because how else could Dick explain the fact that he was  _ willingly  _ spending time with Jason? He wasn’t sure. But here they were. Hanging out on a Friday night like it was something normal.

And yeah, sure, it was awkward, but it was also kinda nice. 

As it would turn out, Jason was a giant nerd. Not that Dick really minded or really cared. Star Wars was pretty cool, he figured. He’d liked the movies well enough. But Jason.

Jason knew them forward, backward, and inside out.

“My friend from my old school had all the movies,” Jason explained when Dick asked what he wanted to watch. Movie night had always been a battle ground before, with Dick refusing to cave in or even listen to what Jason wanted.

Progress.

Slow but steady progress.

Dick popped the movie into the DVD player and took his spot on the couch, frowning slightly when Jason actually sat next to him. 

“You’re okay, you know,” Jason commented, about an hour into the movie. Dick frowned and turned to face him. “I mean, I thought you were a major dick when we first met. But like… You’re okay.”

Dick nodded slightly and turned back to the movie. It was easier to focus on everything else happening around them. Because the Jason wound still stung from time to time, even if he’d finally admitted it wasn’t Jason he’d been mad at.

“I was…” Dick started, trying to figure out what it was he wanted to say. “I wasn’t mad at you,” he decided on after a bit. “I was mad at Bruce, but I took it out on you.”

“Yeah, you really did,” Jason agreed, not turning to face Dick.

“Truce?”

“Truce.”

**I hate the way you’re not around and the fact that you didn’t call.**

“Really good job out there today,” Dick praised as they headed into Mount Justice. The rest of the team had gone on ahead of Nightwing and Robin, but Dick was content to walk beside Jason. It had taken the better part of a year, but they’d finally learned to work together. To respect each other, even.

“Thanks,” Jason smiled, tilting his head to the side to get a better look at Dick. “You too. You’re good at the teamwork thing.”

“You’ll get there,” Dick promised as they kept walking. “I was a giant pain in the neck when we started this Young Justice thing, you know.”

“Really?” Jason grinned, and for once Dick didn’t want to smack it off his face. “Mr. Perfect wasn’t a team player?”

“Not perfect,” Dick rolled his eyes. “I thought I could lead everyone when I was your age, you know.”

“I mean, you are kinda bossy.”

“Shut up.”

Jason laughed and shook his head. “You know a year ago you never would have told me that.”

“Yeah, well a lot changes in a year,” Dick shrugged. It was nice, not spending all his spare energy hating Jason. Especially when Jason hadn't really deserved it. And maybe they’d never really be best friends. But Dick was okay with that. He hoped Jason was too.

“So,” Dick started, stopping dead in his tracks and turning to face Jason. “First person to sneak up on Wally gets bragging rights for a month.”

A wicked grin crossed Jason’s face. “You are so on.”

**But mostly I hate the way I don’t hate you. Not even a little bit. Not even at all.**

  
  



End file.
